My husband Tim and I live in a small piece of Los Angeles that juts into Culver City. We can vote for L.A. mayor, while living within the postal limits of trendy Culver City—the best of both worlds! He's a retired radio engineer. I am a freelance library consultant and teach library science. Our frequent partner-in-crime is Karen, my best friend since college.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

For years, I’ve been bugging Timabout going on a Disney cruise, so finally he booked us onto an
Alaskan cruise to celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary this week.
We flew up to Vancouver very early yesterday (Monday) morning and didn’t get onto the
ship until 1PM. I was starving and so immediately went in search of food.
Luckily, the Parrot Cay restaurant was serving a buffet lunch. We ate, found
our cabin and fell asleep while waiting for our bags. We awoke just in time for
the mandatory emergency drill, where we learned how to don our life-jackets
(kinda dumb) and then decided to investigate the ship.

First stop: Parrot Cay buffet

We were poking around in
the “aft” all by ourselves, when we thought we heard someone yelling on a
loudspeaker. Tim guessed it was some crazy person onshore, but it turned out to
be the first of what promised to be many “family dance parties” mid-ship on the
top deck. Everyone, including Mickey Mouse and friends, was counting down till
the ship launched. Adults, as well as kids, were jumping around and singing. It
was the perfect start to our weeklong Disney cruise. A few minutes later, the
ship left port and we were headed out to the sea.

The welcome wagon

Disney Wonder smoke stack

We’ve been on non-Disney
cruises before, including one to Alaska some 15 years ago. So we know that cruises
are a time to be pampered and entertained and educated—if you want to be—about
your new surroundings. But a Disney cruise is even more special.

Disney princess gathering: Cinderella, Belle, Ariel,

Rapunzel, and Tiana

For one thing,
Mickey and pals are part of every day’s adventure. On Wednesday, for instance,
we had breakfast with Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey (dressed up in his
captain’s regalia) and got to wear crazy hats made out of napkins. Evening
entertainment includes “Broadway-style” shows, often featuring Disney
characters. And first-run Disney films, like Guardians of the Galaxy, are shown all day in the 200-seat Buena
Vista theater. (You haven’t seen Maleficent
until you’ve seen it from the second row in 3D!) Even the ship’s smokestack
plays “When You Wish Upon a Star” when it blows. It’s all Disney all the time.

Breakfast with Minnie Mouse

Pirate napkin hat (Tim as Jack Sparrow)

Of course, the cruise is also all about
nature and the grandeur of Alaska. There’s a naturalist, Doug Jones,
on board, who gives fascinating lectures you can attend or watch via the
onboard TV. Plus the crew is very good about pointing out any “wonders” they
know we’ll want to see. Suddenly the ship’s bells will sound overhead (“When
You Wish Upon a Star,” again) and a disembodied voice will announce the first
glacier sighting or whales on the port or starboard side. That, then, is our
cue to drop everything, grab our cameras and head topside to marvel and take
pictures.

A brisk morning walk topside

Deck 4

Yesterday (Wednesday) we spent most of the day slowly traveling inside the Tracy Arm fjord toward our destination, the South Sawyer glacier. It was a spectacular day—sunny and unusually warm—as Doug Jones explained the amazing terrain we were seeing. Almost everyone was on deck snapping photos and oohing and aahing.

First big glacier sighting

Surrounded by 7000 ft. monoliths

Even Goofy and Donald (below) came

up to see the glaciers

First glimpse of the South Sawyer glacier (center of

photo - click on image to enlarge)

The South Sawyer glacier

The glacier and me from our veranda

Our cabin is a bit cramped but nice.
We’ve had better—our last Alaskan cruise cabin was obscenely sumptuous—but we’ve also had
much worse—steerage! There’s a desk-and-sofa area (where I am right now), that
can be closed-off by a heavy curtain, and we have a small veranda.

Our cabin

Our man
Lorenzo visits the room twice a day, replenishing towels, etc., and
generally keeping everything neat. While we’re at dinner, he leaves chocolates
and the next day’s schedule of events, called “The Personal Navigator,” which
is the single most important resource for planning the following day’s
activities. There is so much going on every day that we would be absolutely
lost without our “Navigator.”

Like all good cruise
ships, there are plenty of “free” (i.e., pre-paid) food options—a liability for most travelers! Breakfast and lunch are served during designated times
at many spots throughout the ship: Goofy’s Galley, Beach Blanket Buffet,
Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, Pluto’s Dog House.

Before . . .

And after (Tim with not one but two hot dogs!)

In addition, the crew hosted a
barbecue on Wednesday to help while away the time as we crept our way toward
the glacier. Needless to say, it was a feeding frenzy, even though we had just
eaten breakfast only three hours before.

Animator's Palette: the most Disneyesque of the

ship's restaurants

Note the giant paint brushes holding up the ceiling

(click on photo to enlarge)

Dinner, on the other hand, is much less
freeform. Although the meals rotate among three of the ship’s larger
restaurants, we are all assigned a table number and eat with the same folks
every night. We selected the early seating—5:45PM as opposed to 8:15PM—and are
happily part of a great group of diners.

Our wonderful tablemates: Blake, Rebecca, G, Tim, Amy, and me

Courses are selected off a menu and
you are encouraged to order as much as you want. For those who like to dine alone or just get away from their kids, there’s also an “adults only”
Italian restaurant, called Palo, that is “price fixe” and requires
reservations. The food is supposed to be exceptional, though so far we’ve been
perfectly happy with our group meals.

First night dinner (Monday)

Formal night (Tuesday)

Semi-formal night (Friday)

Our ship docked at three
ports along the Inside Passage: Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchican. Of the three,
Skagway was the smallest (pop. 862) but also the most magnificent, located at
the mouth of a lush glacier-made valley. Though the town is now mostly t-shirt
shops and jewelry stores, it was once the launching point for thousands of
prospectors stampeding into the Yukon gold rush in the late 1890s.

Docking at dawn in Skagway

Historic Skagway buildings

A nice surprise: flowers in bloom everywhere

Feeling adventurous, we decided to ride the White Pass & YukonRoute narrow-gauge railway 20 miles to the Canadian border and back again. Built
over just two years during the late 19th century, the tracks start at
sea-level and climb up the side of the Coast Mountains for almost 3000
feet—totally outside my normal comfort zone (terrible fear of heights), still
the views were incredible. This was certainly a highlight of the trip.

Inside our small railroad car

The train ahead of us, crawling alongside the edge

of the mountain (click on photo to enlarge)

Riding over the wooden trestle (gag!)

The old wooden trestle, no longer in use (thank goodness!)

The next day (Friday), we
pulled into Juneau, Alaska’s state capitol. We spent a couple of hours
strolling through town and visited the tiny (compared to California) capitol
building.

Pulling into Juneau

Juneau, Alaska's state capitol

Looking at our ship from shore

Stumbling upon the campaign headquarters for
U.S. Senate candidate Mark Begich, I quickly entered, saying, “Hey, I didn’t know
there were Democrats in Alaska!” Turns out one of the campaign managers was a
young guy from Pasadena, who temporarily relocated to Alaska in hopes of
helping Begich win a key seat in the Senate. We wished them lots of luck.

Today (Saturday) we’re in
Ketchikan, known locally as the Salmon Capital of the World. It’s also the
southern-most town on the cruise, so tonight we begin our journey back to
Vancouver. Ketchican is picturesque, with its totem poles and hundred-year-old
wooden homes. But we’ve been here before, so opted to walk around town on our
own, instead of paying top dollar for an onshore tour. Tomorrow we start
packing for home.

Picturesque Ketchikan

With Mickey and Minnie

With Goofy

It’s been a truly
wonderful week, filled with fun, unusually beautiful weather, and gorgeous
scenery. Being on a ship, where everything is taken care of by an excellent
crew, is just heaven. Plus, you never know when you might run into Mickey Mouse, a fairy tale princess, or a Pixar character.

Pixar night (Friday): Russell from Up

My favorite: Woody from Toy Story

Tim's favorites: Mr. and Mrs. Incredible from

The Incredibles

We loved it all so much that we’ve already booked
another Disney cruise, from San Diego to Vancouver, in May 2015. Does anybody
want to join us?